Made an early morning call to Ryan waking him up but got to wish him Happy birthday. Ate our breakfast and then continued hiking the red volcanic trail. Saw a sign that had a note attached to it for us. It was from Ferdinand and Dagit checking in to see how we were doing. They have decided to end their hike in Ashland. After 5 months on the trail they are ready to be done. They advised us not to stay in the cabin due to the mice inhabitants. We had not planned on stopping there so just checked it out and read the ledger. Seems like it was a popular stop for thru hikers. We crossed the Indian Memorial highway and noticed some 5 gallon containers of water. A note from Ranger Rick said that hikers going north should use this water as there is none at the cabin. Since there was a marked spring not to far we thought we would pass this water up. However, underneath the jugs was another note advising south bounders to take some water here as well. The upcoming spring was dry. Usually one can have some confidence that a marked spring would have water. Not so true this summer with Oregon experiencing drought. Gentle ups and downs and the trail seemed to go on for ever, We kept looking for the marked campsite, but then saw the name of another one. We had missed the one we were originally looking for. Even though the campsite was closed, the water at a faucet was still on. Yeah! We hiked to a nearby meadow and settled in for the night.

Mileage hiked 20 miles- near Klum landing campground